Vermeer and Music

Jan Molenaer (about 1610-1668). A Young Man Playing a Theorbo and a Young Woman Playing a Cittern, 1630-2, oil on canvas. Copyright the National Gallery, London. 

The National Gallery, London shows Vermeer and Music: The Art of Love and Leisure, a selection of paintings with musical themes by Vermeer and his contemporaries, instruments and songbooks. Although music permeated public life in the Dutch Republic, most musical activities occurred within the home; artists produced works depicting interiors and courtyards with scenes of music as a leisure pastime. "This exhibition presents a marvelous opportunity to understand the key role that music played in 17th-century Dutch art and society," says curator Betsy Wieseman. 

Anon, Cittern, early 18th century, Italy. Spruce, maple, metal, ebony, ivory or bone, ink, pigment, and gilding. Copyright The Art Archive/ Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. 

Stringed instruments and keyboards were the most popular for solo and ensemble playing. These are the instruments depicted most often in genre paintings (scenes of everyday life). Ensembles might include one or more singers accompanied by a stringed instrument such as a cittern, lute or theorbo, or a combination of instruments. Baroque music, originating in Italy around 1600 with opera, was not assimilated into the Dutch Republic until the 1650s. Composers followed the Dutch style based on the 16th-century Renaissance tradition. Music was a blend of Italian madrigals, French chansons and a few Dutch compositions. 

Johannes Vermeer, A Young Woman Standing at a Virginal, about 1670-2, oil on canvas. Copyright the National Gallery, London. 

Twelve of Johannes Vermeer's thirty-six surviving paintings illustrate musical themes or include an instrument. This painting shows a muselar, a type of virginal (harpsichord) that has the keyboard placed to the right, typical of instruments made by the Ruckers workshop in Antwerp in the 1640s. Female keyboardists were a common subject in 17th-century Dutch art. 

Pieter de Hooch (1629-1684). A Musical Party in a Courtyard, 1677, oil on canvas. Copyright the National Gallery, London. 

Thousands of paintings were created for the Dutch art market during the seventeenth century. For the first time in the history of Western art, painters produced works commercially for buyers of different cultural backgrounds receptive to a variety of styles and subject matter. The general public became potential collectors and houses were usually decorated with at least a few paintings--portraits, genre scenes, still lifes, and landscapes. In almost every town there was a group of painters, as well as in the art centers of Amsterdam, Delft, The Hague, Leiden, and Haarlem. 

Title page from songbook, Den nieuwen verbeterden Lust-Hof (The New Improved Pleasure-Garden), 1607 by Michiel Vlacq. Copyright: By permission of the British Library, London. 

Simple, catchy songs were widely disseminated, people commonly exchanged printed or manuscript music. There were music books (tablature, printed scores) and songbooks. The Dutch songbook typically contained tune indications but no musical notation, interspersed with engraved illustrations and varied typography. Texts were adapted to the tunes of Dutch folksongs or melodies. This songbook, showing the title page's engraved plate, originally contained madrigals, chansons, poetical texts, and sonnets. 

Anon, Lute, about 1630, Venice. Pine, ivory and ebony. Copyright The Art Archive/Victoria and Albert Museum, London/V&A Images. 

A versatile and harmonizing instrument, the lute was used to play vocal music arrangements, song accompaniments and dance music. Many people were all-round musicians and played a variety of instruments. Dutch genre painters often kept a lute as a studio prop. 

Gabriel Metsu (1629-1667). A Man and a Woman Seated by a Virginal, about 1665, oil on oak. Copyright the National Gallery, London. 

The Dutch palette had no more than a few paints, limited pigments were compensated through techniques such as varying paint consistencies, application, underpainting, and glazing. Artists did not paint directly on the canvas, instead they followed a schedule of three separate phases--"inventing" (drawing or sketching), "dead-coloring" (underpainting) and "working-up" (application of detail and color or finishing)--the typical studio method of Northern European artists. 

Jacob van Velsen (about 1597-1656). A Musical Party, 1631, oil on oak. Copyright the National Gallery, London. 

Out of domestic musical practice grew the institutions known as collegia musica--music clubs--the precursor to modern public concerts. Many homes were centers of musical activity. 

Johannes Vermeer, The Music Lesson, about 1662-3, oil on canvas. Royal Collection Trust, copyright Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2013. 

Listen to music featuring the various instruments. 

The National Gallery, Trafalgar Square, London. On view through September 8.